Aspen skier’s death during freeskiing competition at Alyeska casts sorrowful shadow over event:
Two other serious accidents at recent competitions expose the risks of freeriding

Eric Teela/Teela Photography Skiers gathered on top of Alyeska for a memorial service for John Nicoletta who was killed in a skiing accident during the Freeskiing Championships on April 11. Nicoletta, 27, was an accomplished and well known extreme skier. He was featured in commercials, online at You Tube, and in the video “After the Drought: Adventures of a Colorado Snow Company.”

By Allan Warren
Special to the Turnagain Times

On April 11, John Nicoletta, 27, of Aspen, CO, suffered a fatal fall during the Freeskiing competition held at Alyeska. Nicoletta was a young skier who emphasized safety both as a coach and as a passionate ambassador of his sport. The sorrow of his crash overshadowed the joy that brings these skiers and snowboarders from all over the world to compete, and left many, both inside and outside the sport, questioning why it’s necessary for young athletes to take such risks.
For more than two weeks at the end of March and the beginning of April, Alyeska Resort put on display both the extreme skill, and the extreme danger involved in the high-flying world of freeskiing competitions. World-class athletes from around the globe took to the steep, rocky terrain of Alyeska’s Northface and Headwall to showcase the passion that they have for their sport by skiing and riding some of the most technical and demanding lines anywhere. However, the two weeks worth of events also showed how dangerous of a sport extreme freeriding can be.
During the Telepalooza World Championships on March 29, Ben Johnson’s huck off an 80-foot cliff and crash, which left him in the hospital with a broken neck and partial paralysis, was the first of a series of devastating crashes. A few days later, Johnson was followed by Berengere Moroc’s crash in The North Face Master’s snowboarding competition, which left her in the hospital with an arm broken in 14 different places and her face shattered.
Nicoletta was originally from back East, where he grew up skiing in Maine, but he made his home in Aspen where he was the coach of the Big Mountain Freeride Team. He came to Alaska as part of the Subaru U.S. Freeskiing Series, and in his own words he was, “psyched to be a part of it.” Eyewitnesses saw Nicoletta enter the Slowboy Chutes, take about a 20-foot air, and then careen down the mountain “like a bag of sand.”
“He landed the jump then he just lost an edge,” Eric Teela, a photographer on the scene said.
“It’s a devastating loss,” said Cara Williams, Public Relations and Communications Co-coordinator for Mountain Sports International. “John was an extremely gifted skier and in peak condition. He wasn’t doing anything outside of his comfort level. It’s a tragedy.”
Nicoletta’s death is the first fatal accident in the 11 years that the Subaru Freeskiing Series has been going on.
“It wasn’t a bad jump to take, he just didn’t come out of it cleanly,” another eyewitness said. “It was a smooth, excellent rescue, but he wasn’t moving when patrol got to him.”
“Nicoletta received an amazing amount of high level care and everyone involved did a professional job in a really tough situation,” said a doctor on the scene of both Nicoletta’s and Johnson accidents.
After the accident, competitors, organizers, patrollers and Alyeska representatives met to discuss whether or not to continue the event. Everyone decided that continuing to ski would be the best way to honor Nicoletta.
“It’s a testament to the maturity of these athletes,” Williams said. “They know that what they do is full of risk, but they love it and it’s their way of healing.”
The morning after Nicoletta’s death, nearly 200 competitors hiked to the top of Alyeska peak to pay tribute to their friend and fellow competitor. During the memorial, competitors shared their favorite stories and memories of Nicoletta. Before the first competitor left the start gate a large group of Aspen athletes skied the venue in unison and dedicated it to their lost friend.
“This was the most nervous and weird I have ever felt in a competition,” said third place women’s finisher Jess McMillan. “I always ski to ski another day, and after yesterday, the weight of that was heavy. Today I wanted to ski for myself, for John… and for the sake of skiing. I didn’t really care how I did, I just wanted to make it down to the bottom and it feels really good to be down here.”
“There was a lot of emotion at the finish line,” Williams said. “But they needed closure and so it was also uplifting. A number of the athletes told me thank you for letting them ski through it.”
For Dylan Crossman, a skier who competed in both the Telepalooza and the Freeskiing competitions, continuing to ski is a way to heal.
“This is the way we grew up, it’s our passion,” Crossman said. “We’re driven to push ourselves, to live this dream and it’s what makes us happy. Part of it is that fear and the excitement you get from skiing something gnarly, but one little rock can end it. It’s a difficult balance to achieve.”
For Johnson, who is still in the hospital working on recovering movement in his arms after breaking his neck, it wasn’t about the competition, it wasn’t about winning, but like Nicoletta, it was about being there.
“I wanted one of my buddies to win,” Johnson said. “I just wanted to be there and have fun.”
Ironically for Johnson, he now finds himself fighting to overcome a disability that he had been skiing to raise money for in the Athletes With a Cause charity program. Before and after his accident, Johnson has been working with the Web site, www.lifemorenatural.com to use his passion for skiing to raise money and awareness for disabled sports and to purchase a sit-ski. Finding that balance between pursuing their passion and simply being able to, is a struggle that he and Moroc both must now contend with on their long roads to recovery.
That balance, which is so difficult to achieve, is what the events of the past few weeks seem to highlight most. Freeskiers pursue the thing they love most with a passion that is hard to find outside of this sport. They do so at great risk to themselves, but for them, the rewards of close relationships with the people around them, as well as the mountains they chase after, make those risks worth taking.
On the day of Nicoletta’s fatal run, another skier found himself in a tight spot and chose to get belayed out by ski patrol. He knew he was in over his head and he chose to ski another day, and the judges gave him extra points for it.
While Nicoletta’s accident was uncontrollable and tragic, it’s also important to remember that he was an avid voice for skiing safe. While skiing free allows for the freedom to pursue steep, technical and often life-threatening lines, it also means the freedom to bail when situation calls for it. The nature of Nicoletta’s approach to skiing, and his heartbreaking passing, is a reminder to us all that skiing free is way of life that balances precariously between danger and passion.